Tottenham Hotspur will be back in action soon but not all of Roberto De Zerbi's players will be available to get back on to the pitches
Tottenham return to match action in just nine days' time and Roberto De Zerbi will know that some of his players will not be available for some if not most of their pre-season fixtures.
A large group of 23 Spurs players returned to Hotspur Way on Friday for strength, power and medical tests ahead of their return to training on the grass under De Zerbi from Monday. That number included £85million signing Mateus Fernandes but not his fellow £100million new arrival Sandro Tonali who has been awaiting his work permit after his move from Newcastle.
The other returning players included another new signing in Martin Dubravka as well as Archie Gray, James Maddison, Dominic Solanke, Conor Gallagher, Mathys Tel, Richarlison, Destiny Udogie, Antonin Kinsky, Guglielmo Vicario, Ben Davies, Brandon Austin, Dane Scarlett, Mikey Moore, Jamie Donley, Manor Solomon, Kota Takai, Yang Min-hyeok and Ashley Phillips.
Also back working in the gym were long-time injured duo Dejan Kulusevski and Mohammed Kudus as well as Wilson Odobert, who will be out until the end of this year with his ACL injury.
While we await the status of Kulusevski and Kudus, De Zerbi certainly knows some players he will be without for some if not most of the forthcoming pre-season fixture schedule. Tottenham face a training ground friendly against MK Dons on Wednesday July 22 before the players head off on their tour to New Zealand and Australia, where they will play Auckland, Sydney and Chelsea.
When the north London club return to the UK they will take on Getafe at Hotspur Way on August 8. Then come two fixtures against Hoffenheim, the first at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday August 15 and then a training ground friendly against the German side the following day.
Those players De Zerbi will be without for some of that schedule, aside from those out injured, are the World Cup players, who will start returning in stages, their dates based on at least three weeks of rest after their final participation day with their country.
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Tottenham have had 12 players away at the tournament across the Atlantic. Those were Cristian Romero, Kevin Danso, Luka Vuskovic, Djed Spence, Pape Matar Sarr, Pedro Porro, Lucas Bergvall, Micky van de Ven and Rodrigo Bentancur as well as summer signings Andy Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Jan Paul van Hecke.
Taking into account those three weeks of required rest, Robertson and Bentancur both exited in the group stages and would not have returned home from duty until the end of June. That means, unless either decide to cut short their rest which might be inadvisable ahead of a long season, the duo will not return to pre-season training until just in time to head off on the tour to New Zealand and Australia.
The experienced duo could be back in the building before the game against MK Dons but might not be risked so soon after returning.
Vuskovic is set to join Brighton in a £50million deal but those Spurs players whose countries lost in the World Cup round of 32 such as Bergvall, Danso, Sarr, Van de Ven and Van Hecke could also be back just in time for the tour.
The remaining four players, Romero, Senesi, Spence and Porro are all involved in the semi-finals this week which means Zerbi will now know they will also be playing in either the third-place match on July 18 or the final in New York on July 19.
Assuming they all depart international duty around July 19, 20 or 21, three weeks off would mean the quartet would return to training in the week ahead of the two Hoffenheim games, having missed the opening five matches of pre-season.
That double header within 24 hours represents the final warm-up games currently ahead of Spurs' Premier League opener at Brentford just a week later on August 22 and decisions will have to be made on the final returnees, with two of them right-backs in Porro and Spence.